What are the cab or travel rates in kodaikanal for sightseeing?

How much money for a week in China?

• During the summer my boyfriend and I will be spending a week in China for the first time sightseeing in Shanghai and Beijing. Due to the short amount of time we have and the constraints of my tickets, I'm limited to just those two cities this time around. Since I've never been there before, I'm having a little trouble estimating around how much money would be necessary to budget for two people to travel around the two cities for a week, so if anyone more knowledgeable than I can give me a little better idea, I'd appreciate it :) In US dollars or yuan, 1. How much average per day would one person spend on food? 2. How much is subway/metro fare? What about taxis? We're planning on visiting the Cheng Huang temple, Shanghai museum, Shanghai expo, the Great Wall in Beijing, Forbidden City, and a few museums, as well as a little exploring of the cities, about how much money would we expect to pay for transportation as well as admission to those places? 3. How about an average hotel in both Beijing and Shanghai? We've been looking at rates and found a lot of hotels between 50-150USD$ a night in both cities, is this the average price? Would you recommend booking in advance or trying to find a hotel when we get there, and what hotel location would be the best? 4. We were planning on taking the overnight train from Shanghai to Beijing and back again, what's the average price for round-trip train tickets? I've seen a lot of different answers online, so I'm not sure which is accurate. I know it's a little vague and depends a lot on circumstances, but even so much as a slight, rough estimate of any of these costs would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks so much if anyone can help :)

• Answer:

  1. Obviously depending on what quality restaurants you go to, but you'll probably find it about 30-40RMB each for a meal at a brand outlet. You can eat really cheaply at the small restaurants you'll find all over China but I tend not to risk those places. 2. Most metro journeys are pretty cheap 2-6RMB each, or you can just get a metro card for 100RMB for your time there and that should sort you out. Taxis prices can ramp up at rushhour since you'll be stuck in traffic, but generally in the big cities the price might start at 15-20RMB on the meter and end up 30-60RMB for a medium journey across the center of a city. 3. The min price for a decent hotel is probably 50USD like you found out. I usually choose somewhere that costs at least 80USD a night, just to make sure its decent. I've stayed in places that are 50USD and were horrible, and places that were really good for the price. Try to find reviews on anywhere you're interested in is all I can say. Best to book in advance also, and choose hotels near a metro stop is a good idea generally. 4. I've not travelled Shanghai to Beijing but I've travelled similar distances in China and it depends if you're buy a sleeper ticker or just a regular ticket. Theres obviously different priced trains and a few different types of sleepers and seats. So I'd estimate you'd be looking at anywhere between 400RMB each return for something basic to 1000RMB return for something decent.